On Fire
by karebear
Summary: 20 weeks, 20 characters. 100 words, 100 drabbles. 1 revolution.
1. Katniss

Title: On Fire  
><span>Author:<span> karebear  
><span>Disclaimers (Hunger Games):<span> The Hunger Games trilogy was written by and belongs to the brilliant Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing the characters and world for a short while. I swear I'll put them back in (mostly) good working order, and I promise not to make any money off of this.  
><span>SummaryNotes: I'm writing these over on the "Non Star Wars Fan Fiction" section at boards. theforce. net for a specific challenge there called the Ultimate Drabble Challenge (#6), but I thought I'd post them here as well since I actually really like the way they're turning out. It'll go all over the trilogy in terms of order of events and characters, though I will do my best to keep things chronological within each individual week.

* * *

><p>To Summarize The Rules:<p>

1. A drabble is a self-contained work of exactly one hundred words, not counting the title ("prompt word"). ["Self-contained" doesn't necessarily mean that a drabble must be its own complete three-act story, just that, if seen without context, it can stand on its own as something. It can be a scene, a vignette, a joke, a teaser, a whatever.]

2. Each week for twenty weeks, a set of five theme words will be posted. Write one drabble to correspond to each of the themes (five drabbles total). Creative use of the themes is encouraged and appreciated. The theme word itself does _not_ ever need to appear in the drabble (but it can).

3. ? ? ?

4. Profit!

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><p><em>Week 1 (Katniss)<em>

**Lights  
><strong>The sunlight always wakes her up.  
>It's <em>what she does<em>, getting up early to hunt while the animals are still about.  
>Even the Reaping cannot break this habit, even though every sane person is sleeping in today because they <em>can<em>.  
>But today more than ever she needs something familiar, a morning to laugh with Gale because as much as the Capitol tries, they cannot force the Districts to make light of what's going to happen today.<br>This afternoon, twenty-four children will be ripped away from everything they have ever known.  
>Only one of them will ever come home again.<p>

**Camera  
><strong>They put so much time and effort into making her look pretty for the cameras, but she doesn't _want_ to be seen.  
>She's a hunter.<br>She stays quiet, camouflaged, hidden from her prey because _if they see her then she is dead_.  
>But in the opening ceremony she is forced to look into the camera and she sees her image reflected back at her from the huge TV screen, and she is instantly aware of the truth.<br>No one will be able to forget her now.  
><em>The girl who was on fire.<em>  
>She will never be able to hide again.<p>

**Action  
><strong>Sixty seconds of waiting, before they're allowed to die.  
>At least she can use her time wisely.<br>It's possible to learn a lot in sixty seconds.  
>She can guess how the other tributes will react, by noting who is standing still, observant, the way she is, and who is twitching with impatience, reaching out toward all those gifts.<br>She can measure the distance to the Cornucopia. It wouldn't be hard to get there. She knows she's fast enough.  
>She also knows that whatever she could grab is almost certainly not worth it.<br>Sixty seconds, ticking away... three, two, one.  
><em>Go.<em>

**Roll  
><strong>By now she is used to the idea of having cameras on her at all times.  
>But somehow she's still not used to the idea of acting.<br>Dressing up in costume is not new, although it still makes her want to cry because she can only think of Cinna.  
>The soundstage, the teleprompter, headset voices in her ear, calling "cut" and "roll" and "spot" over and over, the artificial smoke (which by itself almost caused her to break down, too much like what a Gamemaker would use), these things she hates, because <em>they shouldn't have to create an artificial war.<em>

**Shoot  
><strong>She's happy to have the bow in her hand, not because she needs a weapon, but because she needs something to hold onto and that's about the only thing that feels like in belongs there, in her sweaty grip, no matter where she is or what she's doing or what has happened.  
>The action stopped requiring thought a long time ago, which is <em>great<em>, because she lost her ability to think clearly a long time ago.  
><em>I KILL SNOW.<em>  
>Grab an arrow. Notch. Aim. Pull back.<br>_"Miss Everdeen, I thought we had agreed not to lie to each other."  
><em>Shoot.


	2. Beetee

Title: On Fire  
><span>Author:<span> karebear  
><span>Disclaimers (Hunger Games):<span> The Hunger Games trilogy was written by and belongs to the brilliant Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing the characters and world for a short while. I swear I'll put them back in (mostly) good working order, and I promise not to make any money off of this.  
><span>SummaryNotes: I'm writing these over on the "Non Star Wars Fan Fiction" section at boards. theforce. net for a specific challenge there called the Ultimate Drabble Challenge (#6), but I thought I'd post them here as well since I actually really like the way they're turning out. It'll go all over the trilogy in terms of order of events and characters, though I will do my best to keep things chronological within each individual week.

* * *

><p><em>Week 2 (Beetee)<em>

**Adventure  
><strong>Adventure is a young child's game.  
>He and Wiress are too old for this.<br>_Out for life._  
>That's the Victor's deal.<br>And even if it weren't, nobody can be reaped after they turn nineteen.  
>This should never have been allowed.<br>The Games are for kids - fast, energetic, fearless kids who look good on camera and haven't lived long enough to understand horror or regret killing each other to survive.  
>Katniss Everdeen is over there, starting fires (of course she is).<br>But as long as they've been here in Training, she's the only one who hasn't even looked at a weapon.

**Romance  
><strong>He hadn't realized how much Wiress meant to him until she was gone, body limp against Gloss' tight grip with his knife still soaked in her blood.  
>He'd gotten used to having her around, spent nearly all his empty, lonely days with her, because that's what Victors do.<br>But a romantic relationship?  
>Never.<br>He cannot get her death out of his head, even as he tightens the wire in tiny loops around his fingers.  
>He'd protected her in here, he'd been protecting her for a long time.<br>Speaking for her, thinking with her.  
>Now that she's gone, he feels empty.<p>

**Science  
><strong>He hates that the arena forces him to use his knowledge to kill. It had been different the first time, a... well, not exactly an accident, but a fluke. He'd been experimenting, curious, with nothing left to lose.  
>He'd never expected it to actually work.<br>Now though... now he knows exactly what will happen, when his wire carries lightning through water to a human body.  
>And he refuses to do it again.<br>He glances up at the flickering force field, far above their heads.  
>He cannot get out of this arena alive, no matter what he does.<br>But they can.

**Fiction  
><strong>His fellow Tributes are not unintelligent.  
>They would not have survived the Games if they were.<br>But they have no reason to know the things he knows.  
>From his brief conversations with Katniss, they barely <em>have<em> electricity in Twelve, and they certainly don't learn how to manipulate it in school. The other districts are little better.  
>The only ones who'd know that he is completely lying about the purpose and survivability of this plan are the ones watching him back home, and it's not like they can call him out on it.<br>And they probably wouldn't even if they could.

**Comedy  
><strong>The only comedy available to Victors is the morbid kind, soaked in sex and alcohol and morphling, the kind that makes you forget you're only eighteen years old, best case, and your life is already over.  
>Nobody knows that the Tributes who die are the lucky ones.<br>They joke with secret smiles as they struggle through sponsorship year after year, so that nobody will _ever_ know.  
>Even now, as he plays in Special Weapons, these people believe he is more stable than all the others they pulled out of the Quell.<br>They believe that he is happy to be alive.


	3. Cinna

Title: On Fire  
><span>Author:<span> karebear  
><span>Disclaimers (Hunger Games):<span> The Hunger Games trilogy was written by and belongs to the brilliant Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing the characters and world for a short while. I swear I'll put them back in (mostly) good working order, and I promise not to make any money off of this.  
><span>SummaryNotes: I'm writing these over on the "Non Star Wars Fan Fiction" section at boards. theforce. net for a specific challenge there called the Ultimate Drabble Challenge (#6), but I thought I'd post them here as well since I actually really like the way they're turning out. It'll go all over the trilogy in terms of order of events and characters, though I will do my best to keep things chronological within each individual week.

If you're ever having trouble figuring out how a drabble connects to its prompt word, go type the word into the dictionary - that's usually how I got the inspiration. "Titanic" for example, can be defined as "of exceptional strength or power"

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><p><em>Week 3 (Cinna)<em>

**Wings  
><strong>He asks for District Twelve before the Reaping, before he could know anything about the children he will mold and dress and send to die.  
>Everyone thinks he's crazy.<br>District Twelve, with exactly one living Victor, two in all of history? What possessed him?  
>Some artist's insanity maybe?<br>But the premonition becomes certainty as he watches this girl Katniss sacrifice herself to save her kid sister.  
>He notices her token immediately, of course, the mockingjay pin.<br>But that isn't who she is, not now, not yet.  
>First she has to get through the fire.<br>The wings come much, much later.

**Unforgiven  
><strong>He keeps himself awake, popping pills and downing pot after pot of coffee, sleeping only an hour or two here and there, so that he can sketch and sew and surround himself with cloth and paint and crazy things that tie together into exactly what is needed.  
>The armor he sends in secret to District Thirteen is enough to condemn him, <em>Be careful, can't get caught, not yet...<em>  
>It's what he's doing now, declaring the revolution, on camera, in the heart of the Capitol at the height of their power, that they will never, ever let him get away with.<p>

**Rocky  
><strong>He talks to other stylists, other prep teams, of course, and they'd always warned him against getting attached.  
>The odds are <em>never<em> in your favor.  
>But from the first moment with Katniss, he'd known that "not getting attached" was not a possibility for them.<br>He asks her to trust him, and she does, although he can tell that trust with her is always a rocky proposal.  
>She hates him for his part in the Games.<br>He only hopes that in the end she will read his apology in the gifts he leaves behind, and find some way to forgive him.

**Titanic  
><strong>He knows she doesn't need him anymore because of what she does after Peeta's interview.  
>With Katniss, the costumes and the cameras have always only obscured the things that matter.<br>It's expected that she clings to Peeta's hand, uniting the two of them in the minds of the audience at times of heightened emotion. He taught her that.  
>But then she reaches out for Chaff.<br>She leads the Tributes in this simple act of solidarity, _and they follow her._  
>"A reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol..."<br>But they _can_.

**Crash  
><strong>He shakes his head, to warn her, to distract her, to make her look away. She's confused, but he knows exactly what is coming.  
>It isn't fair, this was <em>his fault, his decision, she's not involved, she's suffered enough, she'll suffer more, she doesn't need to see this.<em>  
>He falls to his knees, coughing, choking, it hurts to breathe and they just keep hitting and he can't run, there's nowhere to go. Blood runs down into his eyes but he sees her screaming.<br>He doesn't regret anything he's done to get here, he deserves this, but he regrets hurting her.


	4. Haymitch

Title: On Fire  
><span>Author:<span> karebear  
><span>Disclaimers (Hunger Games):<span> The Hunger Games trilogy was written by and belongs to the brilliant Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing the characters and world for a short while. I swear I'll put them back in (mostly) good working order, and I promise not to make any money off of this.  
><span>SummaryNotes: I'm writing these over on the "Non Star Wars Fan Fiction" section at boards. theforce. net for a specific challenge there called the Ultimate Drabble Challenge (#6), but I thought I'd post them here as well since I actually really like the way they're turning out. It'll go all over the trilogy in terms of order of events and characters, though I will do my best to keep things chronological within each individual week.

* * *

><p><em>Week 4 (Haymitch)<em>

**Clue  
><strong>It's not the first time she's come to him with secrets she doesn't trust with anyone else. It's getting so he's not even surprised anymore, just drunkenly amused.  
>This time she's so excited, bouncing up and down, twittering about a mockingjay wing and some kind of reused footage and District Thirteen, alive with hope.<br>And he's not sure what crushes him more; that he has to shatter her hopes by pointing out that they're just two more insane, broken, desperate people, or that he's lying to her while he does it, that he's just one more person she can't trust.

**Operation  
><strong>His priorities shift immediately when they announce the Quell.  
>The secret operations for the rebellion can't matter now.<br>He stops monitoring the situation in Twelve. It rarely changes these days.  
>People are scared, starving, shivering locked in the stocks, suffocating in the mines. There's another whipping or hanging almost every day, and these are <em>all<em> people that he knows. He's burning through his supply of liquor too quickly.  
>He thought he'd be coaching Peeta and Katniss through watching another couple of tributes die. That would be bad enough. But how he can watch these two go back into the Games?<p>

**Life  
><strong>There's no possibility of another fluke like last year's.  
>Katniss and Peeta cannot both make it out of the arena.<br>She begs him to make sure it's Peeta this time, says they both owe him that, he's the good one, the one who deserves it. And she's _right_.  
>But the choice is not theirs to make, now.<br>It has to be her.  
>Because she's the mockingjay, the face of the rebellion, whether she's realized it yet or not.<br>If she dies, any chance they have of ending the Capitol's oppression dies with her.  
>And Peeta would never let her die.<p>

**Sorry  
><strong>She hates him for using her as a pawn in a far bigger game then she'd realized. But she's hated him before. He's used to it.  
>He keeps talking because the longer he can babble about the arena, the longer he can put off telling her the truth no apology will ever erase.<br>He's glad when she attacks him, because that's his excuse to let someone else break the news.  
>He watches Gale do it, the only one there who was outside their games, their plans, their revolution.<br>His voice is dead, his eyes hard.  
><em>"There is no District Twelve."<em>

**Risk  
><strong>It's risky, asking her to do this.  
>She's been through so much already, lost <em>everything<em>.  
>Memories of an arena twenty-five years old are enough to send him running for a bottle, and they are asking Katniss to go back into the fight a <em>third<em> time, and this time it is not for the cameras.  
>There are no rules now.<br>This is _war, this is real._  
>Death is no longer the worst or only possible outcome.<br>He wouldn't trust himself to do it, to lead these people.  
>What if she loses the little bit of sanity she's still holding onto?<p> 


	5. Gale

Title: On Fire  
><span>Author:<span> karebear  
><span>Disclaimers (Hunger Games):<span> The Hunger Games trilogy was written by and belongs to the brilliant Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing the characters and world for a short while. I swear I'll put them back in (mostly) good working order, and I promise not to make any money off of this.  
><span>SummaryNotes: I'm writing these over on the "Non Star Wars Fan Fiction" section at boards. theforce. net for a specific challenge there called the Ultimate Drabble Challenge (#6), but I thought I'd post them here as well since I actually really like the way they're turning out. It'll go all over the trilogy in terms of order of events and characters, though I will do my best to keep things chronological within each individual week.

* * *

><p><em>Week 5 (Gale)<em>

**Rated  
><strong>He doesn't remember when she stopped being the little girl who tagged along with him and he started thinking about... _more_.  
>But he knows when that stopped.<br>When she went into the Games, to save Prim.  
>He was certain she'd die, because they all do.<br>No one from Twelve who goes into the arena ever comes back.  
>But she did.<br>She is so warm against him that it's easy to forget the chilly winds. Her lips are soft and perfect, melting like sugar. Her body is curled up against his.  
>"I had to do that," he whispers. "At least once."<p>

**Guidance  
><strong>She doesn't push him away.  
>He lets go, still not sure if this is a good idea.<br>When she jumped onto him, he'd wrapped his arms around her instinctively, the way he would with Posy.  
>But now, he is distinctly aware that Katniss is <em>not<em> his little sister. Or his cousin.  
>Her little hiccuping bursts of sound - he can't tell if she's laughing or crying - remind him of the way she was the first time they'd ever walked these woods together. Just a kid, but <em>so determined<em> to keep herself and her family alive.  
>They were made for each other.<p>

**Suggested  
><strong>He follows her out into the woods because when he's here he can pretend that nothing at all has changed.  
>But she came back with Peeta.<br>It should have been _him_, guarding her in the arena. Watching her back, same as always.  
>It's not the first time he's wondered what it would be like, if the two of them just left it all behind, stayed out here forever. He thinks about it all the time, actually.<br>It's about the only thing that gets him through the working the mines.  
>But he's not about to be the one to suggest it.<p>

**Caution  
><strong>"President Snow personally threatened to have you killed."  
>He makes some sort of noncommittal noise.<br>Exactly what is he supposed to say to _that_?  
>"Why?" he finally asks.<br>She tells him that her feelings for Peeta were a lie, but they're also the only reason she's still alive.  
>Well, he'd known the boy with the bread kept her safe in the arena.<br>He'd learned with the rest of Panem that he's the reason she hadn't starved to death long before she ever made it out into the woods to find his snares.  
>So he owes Peeta, enough to walk away.<p>

**Restricted  
><strong>He swims to consciousness through the haze of pain and painkillers, and _she's there_.  
>"Hey, Catnip," he mumbles.<br>Her smile lights up the room, although behind it, her eyes are clouded with fear. "Hey, Gale."  
>He can't think very clearly, but fragmented memories begin to surface. Harsh words, angry fights, a million reasons why she shouldn't be here with him.<br>"Thought you'd be gone by now," he whispers.  
>He can't remember where she was trying to go, just <em>away<em> somewhere. With someone else.  
>"I'm not going anywhere."<br>They'd tried so hard to ignore each other, but it doesn't matter anymore.


	6. Finnick

Title: On Fire  
><span>Author:<span> karebear  
><span>Disclaimers (Hunger Games):<span> The Hunger Games trilogy was written by and belongs to the brilliant Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing the characters and world for a short while. I swear I'll put them back in (mostly) good working order, and I promise not to make any money off of this.  
><span>SummaryNotes: I'm writing these over on the "Non Star Wars Fan Fiction" section at boards. theforce. net for a specific challenge there called the Ultimate Drabble Challenge (#6), but I thought I'd post them here as well since I actually really like the way they're turning out. It'll go all over the trilogy in terms of order of events and characters, though I will do my best to keep things chronological within each individual week.

* * *

><p><em>Week 6 (Finnick)<em>

**Sex  
><strong>He knows he's good-looking, and if he didn't before the Games he certainly realized it the moment his stylist threw him out into the arena pretty much naked, _for the cameras._  
>He knows that Victors are often seen parading around, entwined with Capitol schmoozers whenever there's a Games-related event.<br>He doesn't have any reason to think about it, until Snow finds him the night before the 66th Victory Tour, which also happens to be the night before his sixteenth birthday.  
>He feels sick.<br>But they threaten his family, his best friends. They threaten Annie.  
>So he does it.<p>

**Graphic  
><strong>"Hello, Katniss," he says, and she rolls her eyes. But she also smiles. "Want a sugar cube?"  
>He holds it out to her. She doesn't take it.<br>He can tell she's uncomfortable. Well, he is too.  
>He's not looking forward to this repeat performance in the arena any more than she is.<br>"You sure?" he asks gently. He's actually not used to anyone turning him down on anything, not anymore. "If _we_ see something sweet, well..."  
><em>Better grab it quick.<br>_She's much too focused on what he's wearing, or more accurately, what he _isn't_.  
>And he <em>is<em> used to that.

**Violence  
><strong>"What's going on down there, Katniss?" he asks sardonically. "They've all taken a vow of nonviolence in defiance of the Capitol?"  
>Not bloody likely.<br>He can see it as well as she can. Blood and bodies, screams and cries.  
>This is what the arena is <em>for<em>, and they sure as hell know it.  
>He wonders how many of them threw themselves into the crushing melee at the Cornucopia <em>on purpose<em> because they _know_ that the only way to win a Hunger Games is to die trying.  
>"No," Katniss whispers.<br>"_No_," he repeats urgently.  
>But he almost feels bad about it.<p>

**Language  
><strong>"Sorry" is a word they say a lot. But they're always apologizing for other people, never for themselves.  
>"I'm sorry I didn't warn you," is what he tells her now.<br>But as she thinks about it, she realizes that he _did_.  
>"Everybody knows my secrets before I know them myself," she'd told him when he asked.<br>"Unfortunately, I think that's true," was his response.  
><em>Everybody<em> knew her secrets.  
><em>He did too.<em>  
>And by pointing this out, he <em>was<em> warning her, to keep her eyes and ears open.  
>"Do you <em>really know what's going on?<em> And if you don't..._ find out."_

**Drugs  
><strong>They all have their own little ways of getting through it.  
>Alcohol. Morphling. Shooting things in the woods.<br>He has knots. Tangle, untangle, twist and loop the rope around your fingers and do it again.  
>And he knows <em>exactly<em> how to tie this thing into a noose (except it's not long enough, he's made _sure_ of that). Because that would be too _easy_. He doesn't deserve that.  
>"How do you bear it?" she whispers.<br>She comes to him in the dark because they may be the only two people here who _absolutely_ understand darkness.  
>"I <em>don't<em>, Katniss! Obviously, I don't."


	7. Prim

Title: On Fire  
><span>Author:<span> karebear  
><span>Disclaimers (Hunger Games):<span> The Hunger Games trilogy was written by and belongs to the brilliant Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing the characters and world for a short while. I swear I'll put them back in (mostly) good working order, and I promise not to make any money off of this.  
><span>SummaryNotes: I'm writing these over on the "Non Star Wars Fan Fiction" section at boards. theforce. net for a specific challenge there called the Ultimate Drabble Challenge (#6), but I thought I'd post them here as well since I actually really like the way they're turning out. It'll go all over the trilogy in terms of order of events and characters, though I will do my best to keep things chronological within each individual week.

* * *

><p><span>Week 7 Specific Note<span>: Given that this is UDC #6, Week 7's prompt words were "pick any prompt word from each of the previous 5 challenges in chronological order." You'd think that essentially being able to cherry-pick the words would make it easier... but it didn't. I think it made it harder, actually.

_Week 7 (Prim)_

**Family  
><strong>Stomachache. Nervous, sweaty hands.  
>They make all the twelve-year-olds stand together. These are people she's grown up with but she doesn't really have any friends.<br>First Reaping.  
>She wonders if it gets better as you get older. She looks for Katniss and Gale and finds them and knows the answer is "no."<br>She's so scared she doesn't even hear her name the first time, doesn't recognize that this is _about her_ until she hears Katniss yelling.  
>"I volunteer!" <em>No!<br>_She doesn't want to die, but doesn't Katniss know she'd _rather_ die than lose another member of her family?

**Hope  
><strong>She thinks most people would be ashamed of crawling into their sister's lap like a baby at her age, but she isn't. It feels natural, it feels right, it feels _normal_. And normal is what she needs right now. Mother and Katniss talk about her as though she's not there and can't hear them, fighting about what's going to happen... after.  
>Because she knows the word they're not saying. <em>Goodbye<em>.  
>She won't say it either.<br>She puts her hand up to Katniss' face so she can look her big sister in the eyes.  
>"Maybe you can win," she whispers fiercely.<p>

**Distance  
><strong>It's not like they ever spent much time together even before the Games. They had school. Katniss got up early most mornings to hunt and spent most evenings hanging around the Hob with Gale. But the time they spent together was... not like it is now.  
>For one thing, there's the house. It's big, <em>huge<em>, and Katniss can hide, so she does. And for another... they have nothing in common anymore. Prim had _seen_ what Katniss went through in the arena (She had to - they don't let you not watch).  
>But seeing it is not the same as living it.<p>

**Truth  
><strong>"So what do you think they'll do to him?" Katniss whispers.  
>Prim blinks.<br>It's the first time her sister seems to have realized that she's not _seven_ anymore. She lets go of Buttercup, because clinging to the cat does not exactly help her case that she's closer to an adult than they think.  
>She knows the answer to that question (they both do, really), but does Katniss really <em>want<em> the answer, out loud?  
><em>Yes<em>, she decides. Katniss has always hated lying and manipulating and games, and ever more so now.  
>"Whatever it takes to break you," she whispers back, sadly.<p>

**Needed  
><strong>"You're too young."  
>"No I'm not! I'm one of the best medics you have. You <em>need<em> me."  
>Well they can't argue with that.<br>So she suits up and ships out to the Capitol with the rest of them.  
>For <em>once<em>, she will not be left behind to wait and watch and worry while Katniss fights. Because the truth is she hates the Capitol just as much as anyone else.  
>And she can fight. She <em>should have been<em> the one fighting from the start.  
>Besides, no one seemed to think twelve was too young to die back when this all started.<p> 


	8. Plutarch

Title: On Fire  
><span>Author:<span> karebear  
><span>Disclaimers (Hunger Games):<span> The Hunger Games trilogy was written by and belongs to the brilliant Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing the characters and world for a short while. I swear I'll put them back in (mostly) good working order, and I promise not to make any money off of this.  
><span>SummaryNotes: I'm writing these over on the "Non Star Wars Fan Fiction" section at boards. theforce. net for a specific challenge there called the Ultimate Drabble Challenge (#6), but I thought I'd post them here as well since I actually really like the way they're turning out. It'll go all over the trilogy in terms of order of events and characters, though I will do my best to keep things chronological within each individual week.

Week 8... really challenging words this week. Tons of fun to play with!

* * *

><p><em>Week 8 (Plutarch)<em>

**Cube  
><strong>He nibbles on a cheese cube and tries to pretend he's excited about this.  
>It's <em>impossible<em> to be excited about this. He cannot think of a single good thing about this meeting and he cannot _stop_ thinking about the bad things.  
>He's here because the man who held this job previously was executed in a spectacularly gruesome manner that no one is supposed to know about but that he knows <em>all<em> about, because they want him to know exactly what's on the line.  
>And he's here because he's the best they've got at devising ways to torture and kill children.<p>

**Sphere  
><strong>It helps if he thinks of it the way the Capitol people do. Just a game, a challenging puzzle. He can laugh with them and even feel proud of his own intelligence if he forces himself not to remember that_ real people_ will be caught in these traps. The clock idea wasn't his. He doesn't remember who thought of it, but as he pulls up the holographic sphere to start outlining the plans and blueprints, he has to admit, it's brilliant. Stunningly simple. Beautiful, really. He divides the sphere into twelve equal sections, and contemplates suicide in twelve different ways.

**Cone  
><strong>He watches Katniss from afar throughout the feast, and at one point he sees her carefully licking at an ice cream cone. He almost loses it right there. It's such a childlike thing to do, and it reminds him of his daughter, somewhere in District Thirteen with her mother.  
>They don't talk to him anymore, and he's glad about that.<br>"It starts at midnight," he warns, wild and insistent. She doesn't understand yet, but the knowledge will save her life.  
>And keeping her alive <em>is<em> his job, after all.  
>He can't save all of them, but he can save her.<p>

**Cylinder  
><strong>As always, the tributes await their doom in plexiglass cylinders. He focuses on hers, and wishes that he didn't, because through the video screen he can see what's happening to Cinna, and he knows the man doesn't deserve it and especially doesn't deserve the death that awaits him after this. They're on the same team, playing these dangerous games for both sides. He swears sometimes they've passed each other in the halls, in meetings, getting ready to stage the Quarter Quell, and they never quite meet each other's eyes but they both know... soon enough, it'll all come crashing down.

**Pyramid  
><strong>It's always been a fraud, a pyramid scheme. He had to design the arena to work in two ways, as death trap and escape route. And he had to do it in such a way that its true purpose was hidden from both the observing audience and the children locked inside. A few of them know, his allies, though of course they've never spoken. Messages are passed through cryptic signs and symbols. There are layers and layers to this game, wheels within wheels, but there is only one goal: Blow up the illusion, force the world to confront the truth.


	9. Mrs Everdeen

Title: On Fire  
><span>Author:<span> karebear  
><span>Disclaimers (Hunger Games):<span> The Hunger Games trilogy was written by and belongs to the brilliant Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing the characters and world for a short while. I swear I'll put them back in (mostly) good working order, and I promise not to make any money off of this.  
><span>SummaryNotes: I'm writing these over on the "Non Star Wars Fan Fiction" section at boards. theforce. net for a specific challenge there called the Ultimate Drabble Challenge (#6), but I thought I'd post them here as well since I actually really like the way they're turning out. It'll go all over the trilogy in terms of order of events and characters, though I will do my best to keep things chronological within each individual week.

I am loving this challenge! I feel like I create a new personal favorite every week.

* * *

><p><em>Week 9 (Mrs. Everdeen)<em>

**Who  
><strong>She knows Katniss will never forgive her for losing herself instead of being the mother her children needed after their father died.  
>She wishes she could lose herself again today, just like every Reaping.<br>Katniss doesn't know it, but when she turned twelve and signed up for tessarae and became eligible to _die_, that's what made her pull out of that dark despair the first time.  
>She refuses to let her daughter die believing she's alone in the world.<br>Still, she almost falls apart when she hears Prim's name called.  
>She hears Katniss yell:<em> "I volunteer!"<em>  
>She loses either way.<p>

**What  
><strong>She would never say it, because saying it out loud makes it real and true, but she'd always believed she'd be watching her daughter die on the screens.  
>She never allowed herself to imagine she would see Katniss live to start a war.<br>Because that moment with the berries took just a little too long... she _knows_ how her daughter thinks. That was on purpose, a calculated gamble. And it _worked_.  
>Katniss comes home, but she's changed. Neither of them can pretend she's a little girl anymore.<br>What is she now? A Victor?  
>It hardly feels like they've won anything.<p>

**When  
><strong>She hates that this feels so natural to her.  
>As she works with blood and bandages and snow, it doesn't matter who it is, it doesn't matter <em>when<em> it is.  
>It's the one thing that got her through raising her children, especially after the mine explosion: the knowledge that it could be worse, that it <em>had been worse<em>, when she was still young enough to have her own name in the Reaping ball. She dodged that bullet, never got sent to the Capitol, never had to face the arena.  
>Does it matter?<br>They hurt people bad enough in District Twelve.

**Where  
><strong>As her daughter dodges raining blood, she dodges raining fire.  
>This is <em>not<em> how it's supposed to happen.  
>They take two children from every district, every year. That sacrifice keeps the rest of them safe. Those are the rules.<br>But a part of her has always known the truth.  
>There are no rules. There are no limits to the Capitol's cruelty.<br>She grabs Prim and runs and around them the world burns and screams and dies, but they make it out, to an unreal place that shouldn't exist.  
>District Thirteen, where they fight for the home that doesn't exist anymore.<p>

**Why  
><strong>They call her daughter the mockingjay; she incites rebellion with a song.  
>They don't know how long ago it started. Katniss herself may not even realize that she sings her father's memory with every move she makes.<br>She still remembers the man she fell in love with as she mourned a best friend killed in the Capitol's Games, a Seam boy with a deep crooning voice and a dangerous melody.  
>She'd told Katniss to just forget it, but she never did.<br>_"Are you, are you, coming to the tree, where I told you to run so we'd both be free."_


	10. Snow

Title: On Fire  
><span>Author:<span> karebear  
><span>Disclaimers (Hunger Games):<span> The Hunger Games trilogy was written by and belongs to the brilliant Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing the characters and world for a short while. I swear I'll put them back in (mostly) good working order, and I promise not to make any money off of this.  
><span>SummaryNotes: I'm writing these over on the "Non Star Wars Fan Fiction" section at boards. theforce. net for a specific challenge there called the Ultimate Drabble Challenge (#6), but I thought I'd post them here as well since I actually really like the way they're turning out. It'll go all over the trilogy in terms of order of events and characters, though I will do my best to keep things chronological within each individual week.

This week: fun with perspective flip and intriguing revelations on character motivations. I do so love this stuff!

* * *

><p><em>Week 10 (Snow)<em>

**Return  
><strong>"It must be very fragile," she says carefully. "If a handful of berries can bring it down."  
>And he smiles, showing his pointed canines, his bloody gums. He's learned how to maximize his intimidating looks. He has to, if he expects anything he's built to stand. "It is fragile," he agrees.<br>She'd _hate_ it if he mentioned it, but he sees a lot of himself in her. That cautious, calculating intelligence. That willingness to do _anything_ to protect what's important to her.  
>And the way she can't stand tricks and lies. They're so <em>exhausting<em> to maintain.  
>He tells the truth.<p>

**Revenge  
><strong>She thinks everything's about her, a personal war between the two of them.  
>It's true, he gives the orders, he's in charge, but despite their words in her Victor's house, he couldn't care less who she thinks she loves, who she sleeps with. He pulled out the Peacekeeper in District Twelve who didn't do his job and put in a new force that would. That thing with her not-cousin, the whipping, he didn't even hear about it until days afterward, it had absolutely nothing to do with him.<br>Petty revenge is not his style. He's all about keeping control.

**Curse  
><strong>He almost grins when he reads the card, the rules for the third Quarter Quell, the Seventy-Fifth anniversary of this annual event that keeps the nation focused on the wrong target. Because he knows as well as she does that there's only one female Victor that _could_ be reaped from District Twelve. He could not have picked a better curse to doom her with if he tried. It gets her out of the way, distracts her, and whatever rebellion is following her now cannot make a move until after the Games. Their plans will certainly fizzle when she dies.

**Wrath  
><strong>He makes sacrifices. He takes life for very specific reasons. To minimize threat.  
>If that means taking out twenty-three children, or one revolutionary, or a hospital in a rebellious city, he does it.<br>If it means taking out an entire district, he does that too.  
>He sends his planes screaming over her district with firebombs the minute the forcefield over the arena breaks. That shield existed for a reason, and when she took it down she took away the only thing protecting everything she ever cared about.<br>He _cannot_ let these people believe he'll ever let their mockingjay fly.

**Attack  
><strong>Katniss once made the false assumption that this was a private war between the two of them, but she's not the only one who made that mistake.  
>Oh, he has no doubt she'd still like nothing more than to kill him. But they both know this is about bigger things.<br>He meets her eyes, and smiles.  
>They've set her up to attack him; they've set him up to be helpless.<br>There are cameras running. They both know what she does now: something unexpected.  
>He'll still die, but Coin will not get the win. Katniss does.<br>It's all he's ever wanted.


	11. Peeta

Title: On Fire  
><span>Author:<span> karebear  
><span>Disclaimers (Hunger Games):<span> The Hunger Games trilogy was written by and belongs to the brilliant Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing the characters and world for a short while. I swear I'll put them back in (mostly) good working order, and I promise not to make any money off of this.  
><span>SummaryNotes: I'm writing these over on the "Non Star Wars Fan Fiction" section at boards. theforce. net for a specific challenge there called the Ultimate Drabble Challenge (#6), but I thought I'd post them here as well since I actually really like the way they're turning out. It'll go all over the trilogy in terms of order of events and characters, though I will do my best to keep things chronological within each individual week.

Drabbles take _forever_ to write, but when they come together... it's like I can _feel_ them click. It's magical!

* * *

><p><em>Week 11 (Peeta)<em>

**Death  
><strong>He's ready when they call his name.  
>It's not like he wants to die, but if he has to, at least he won't be alone in the arena. He'll be with her. Katniss. The girl he's been sneaking around, spying on, protecting and <em>loving<em> for nearly five years even though they've never spoken. She deliberately avoids him now, knowing what's coming.  
>"I <em>will not let them kill me<em>," he tells her in the Capitol, their last night. "I won't die on their terms."  
>And that means she won't die either.<br>Not while he's still there to watch our for her.

**Doom  
><strong>Animals go off into the woods, to die alone.  
>Katniss taught him that.<br>His leg pulses with agonizing pain, but he finds the cool mud of the riverbank makes it survivable. He distracts himself by painting swirling patterns on his skin, matching the colors and shades of the world that swallows him. His palette is blood and dirt. The marsh grass is his paintbrush.  
>The water laps over him in gentle waves. He closes his eyes.<br>But her voice calls, searching him out, bringing him back to life.  
>He smiles.<br>"Frosting," he says weakly. "The final defense of the dying."

**Terror  
><strong>He thinks about those days in the cave a lot now.  
>He clings to memories of Katniss when she loved him, before he <em>knew<em> it was a lie.  
>It would have been so much better if he'd died.<br>He suffers continuous torture; blinding lights, overwhelming pain, piercing sound that rips through his brain and _never ends_.  
>The Capitol must know that his good memories, those brief flickers of happiness, were giving him strength to resist.<br>Because now he screams and rages in the night, they have stolen even those from him, flipped them and turned them into weapons of terror.

**Peril  
><strong>He does not want go back to the Capitol. He does not want to stay alone. He does not feel safe with Katniss. He cannot walk away from her.  
>He grabs at anything solid he can cling to, numbers on his skin (<em>451. <em>His squad. They want him, they picked him. They guard him, they fear him). Solid ground beneath him. He counts breaths. Keep breathing.  
>As long as he is breathing he is still alive.<br>_"I can't tell what's real anymore, and what's made up."_  
>"Then you should ask."<br>He loves Katniss. She hates him.  
>Real or not real?<p>

**Shadow  
><strong>She glances back at him, and his heartbeat catches. He sees it in her eyes, the ever-present knowledge that they walk on a graveyard.  
>It takes a moment, but he smiles, weak at first, but sunlight on green grass and his children's laughter makes it real.<br>He and Katniss both have their moments of darkness, their memories, their nightmares.  
>But those things are not real anymore, not when <em>he gets to decide<em> what's real and not real.  
>Those things that haunt him are insignificant, just ghosts to tell about in stories. They cannot hurt him anymore.<br>They're only shadows.


	12. Coin

Title: On Fire  
><span>Author:<span> karebear  
><span>Disclaimers (Hunger Games):<span> The Hunger Games trilogy was written by and belongs to the brilliant Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing the characters and world for a short while. I swear I'll put them back in (mostly) good working order, and I promise not to make any money off of this.  
><span>SummaryNotes: I'm writing these over on the "Non Star Wars Fan Fiction" section at boards. theforce. net for a specific challenge there called the Ultimate Drabble Challenge (#6), but I thought I'd post them here as well since I actually really like the way they're turning out. It'll go all over the trilogy in terms of order of events and characters, though I will do my best to keep things chronological within each individual week.

Challenging words this week (more math words!). Words that can have multiple definitions. I used Google dictionary for inspiration, and put the relevant definition next to the prompt word.

* * *

><p><em>Week 12 (Coin)<em>

**Prime** ("the beginning or first")  
>She grew up in a city underground, constantly hearing words she didn't understand, learning to fight against people she never knew, in a world she'd never seen.<br>"Why?" she asked her instructor one day.  
>"The Capitol is evil. Corrupt."<br>It's the day she sees her first Hunger Games, an old recording, but it's clear the adults are bristling at the thought of children being forced to kill, to die.  
>She wonders why they have a problem with it.<br>She's the same age as they are, those kids on the screen, and she's been training as a soldier all her life.

**Composite** ("the product of two or more factors, a thing made up of several parts")  
>She grows up, she grows old, she never fights.<br>She continues to hear the stories, but she understands them now. How District 13 used to be the most powerful in Panem, had weapons that even the Capitol feared. But that District 13 doesn't exist anymore.  
>An angry fire flares inside of her, alongside other more dangerous feelings. She doesn't understand how they can hide here, pretending to fight.<br>She wants something better.  
>She wants a war, she wants to win.<br>She begins reaching out, in secret, to the world she is not part of. The seeds of revolution are planted.

**Deficient** ("not having enough of a specified quality or ingredient")  
>They've gone too long, with nothing to unite or drive them.<br>Kids continue to train but never fight. At least in District 13.  
>Coin watches the Hunger Games, live feeds now, no more old recordings. And that's how she sees this girl disregard the Capitol's whims and offer herself in place of the tiny little girl whose name was actually pulled.<br>When she manages to break the rules of the game completely, refusing to kill her fellow tribute, forcing a choice between two victors or a televised suicide pact, Coin knows she's found the symbol her people will rally behind.

**Perfect** ("as good as it is possible to be, highly suitable for something")  
>"I'll be your Mockingjay," the girl says, and Coin smiles thinly. As if it were ever a question.<br>But she insists on laying out conditions.  
>For the most part, they are easy. Letting her hunt is not an issue. If they want her to lead their war, they'll need her in fighting condition, and she won't get there locked down underground.<br>She wants immunity for the tributes. That's a dangerous precedent, but she concedes, because without it they're right back to where they started.  
>And the last request? <em>"I kill Snow."<em>  
>That's how Coin knows she's made the perfect pick.<p>

**Abundant** ("existing or available in large quantities")  
>Every war in history is about limited resources.<br>The Hunger Games. They're not played in an arena, they're played _everywhere_, every day.  
>Tesserae.<br>Fences on the other side of which game runs free, but it's illegal to hunt. Can't eat the food you pick from the fields, if it's marked to go to the Capitol. The punishment is whipping in Districts 1-12. In District 13, it's confinement, long days shackled and bruised in a cell.  
>In the Capitol, Snow makes the laws. In District 13, she does.<br>But the laws are arbitrary.  
>There's more than enough to go around.<p> 


	13. Rue

Title: On Fire  
><span>Author:<span> karebear  
><span>Disclaimers (Hunger Games):<span> The Hunger Games trilogy was written by and belongs to the brilliant Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing the characters and world for a short while. I swear I'll put them back in (mostly) good working order, and I promise not to make any money off of this.  
><span>SummaryNotes: I'm writing these over on the "Non Star Wars Fan Fiction" section at boards. theforce. net for a specific challenge there called the Ultimate Drabble Challenge (#6), but I thought I'd post them here as well since I actually really like the way they're turning out. It'll go all over the trilogy in terms of order of events and characters, though I will do my best to keep things chronological within each individual week.

Guess who managed to take something as awesomely sweet and innocent as "Pixar words," and Rue, and _completely shatter it_ with horribly horrible horror and _angst_. Me (of course)! Never trust me with anything.

* * *

><p><em>Week 13 (Rue)<em>

**Toys  
><strong>The interviewer asks her with a smile how she scored so well in Training, and she tells him the truth: "I'm very hard to catch."  
>The Peacekeepers never caught her either.<br>She knows the audience can only see her as young, small and weak. Just a child.  
>They expect her to go down easy. They'll be surprised.<br>She's not a little kid, she's _old_. The oldest in her family: protector. Seasoned survivor, hard worker. They all work in District Eleven.  
>But she played, too. Ran, jumped, sang. Hunted and hid, laughed and teased and joked.<br>The trees were her toys.

**Bugs  
><strong>The tracker jacker nest swings gently in the breeze. It would be easy not to notice. It would be easy for anyone but her not to understand its danger.  
>Fear makes her freeze, in her own tree, just out of reach. But if the wasps were to fly, they could still get her.<br>Even before they're ever seen, the mutts inspire terror.  
>She comforts herself by reaching to her pocket, clutching tight to her leaves. She's been stung before, they <em>all<em> have, at home.  
>She knows how to survive this and nobody else does.<br>She warns Katniss. And she runs.

**Monsters  
><strong>"If they can't catch me, they can't kill me," she repeats to herself over and over.  
>But does she <em>want<em> to win?  
>Memories follow her through the arena.<br>Shivering in the dark, blind and _almost_ collapsing from hunger, but _knowing_ she had to keep going, keep working, because she'd seen enough to know what happens to the ones who don't.  
>Watching friends, whipped and bleeding, knowing one misstep, one bad day, and it would be her.<br>Watching the Peacekeepers _kill_ an innocent boy, who didn't understand and just wanted to play.  
>The real monsters <em>never<em> stay locked up in Games.

**Heroes  
><strong>Katniss finds her later, offers an alliance, and somehow she trusts this other girl even though she shouldn't.  
>Because although she'd killed those other tributes (Horribly. She can't shake the images of jacker stings), Rue had also seen the video of the Reaping. Katniss shouldn't even <em>be<em> here.  
>They sleep together in a tree and it reminds her of home. Up high, she feels free.<br>They plan to break the rules, and not get caught.  
>"They've got everything," she whispers. "And they're so strong."<br>Who is she talking about? The Careers? Or the Capitol?  
>"We're strong too," Katniss reminds her.<p>

**Rats  
><strong>She lays dying in the grass, and the nightmares overwhelm.  
>She knows what happens when people drop in the fields during the harvest, when they're not allowed to stop to bury them. They just get dumped to the side, far enough away that they won't destroy the crops, and then they rot, and the animals eat them, bugs and rats and carrion birds. She's so afraid of that happening to her (why though? She won't feel it. It won't matter). But still, she shakes. She cries.<br>"Sing," she begs Katniss.  
>One last beautiful thing. One last distraction. One last game.<p> 


	14. Darius

Title: On Fire  
><span>Author:<span> karebear  
><span>Disclaimers (Hunger Games):<span> The Hunger Games trilogy was written by and belongs to the brilliant Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing the characters and world for a short while. I swear I'll put them back in (mostly) good working order, and I promise not to make any money off of this.  
><span>SummaryNotes: I'm writing these over on the "Non Star Wars Fan Fiction" section at boards. theforce. net for a specific challenge there called the Ultimate Drabble Challenge (#6), but I thought I'd post them here as well since I actually really like the way they're turning out. It'll go all over the trilogy in terms of order of events and characters, though I will do my best to keep things chronological within each individual week.

Another "pick one word from the previous five challenges" week. This one was pretty much completely an experiment for me, wide-open, trying to assign motivations to a character we know almost nothing about. But then I realized, hey whatevs, I've been doing that for weeks. And I kind of like this one.

* * *

><p><em>Week 14 (Darius)<em>

**Smile  
><strong>It's his infectious grin that gets him his free pass in here, and he knows it.  
>There is absolutely no way a Peacekeeper should be allowed to freely wander around a black market, even in District Twelve. It's a good thing his supervisor spends most of his time drunk, or with desperate women, rewarding them for their illegal services with illegal food.<br>He shouldn't be glad, but Darius knows that although this isn't how it's supposed to be, it's how he wants it.  
>Here he smiles, teases, tries to make Katniss laugh.<br>In any other District... he'd be a murderer.

**Pain  
><strong>"What's the penalty for poaching?" Thread asks him. They both know the answer. It's a test of his loyalty. He has to tell the truth.  
>But he shivers when he sees the cruel glint in Thread's eye.<br>He'll _kill_ an innocent kid, and Darius is the only one who might have a chance of stopping it.  
>It turns out he doesn't have the power to stop anybody from doing anything, not when it really matters.<br>He fades out of consciousness at exactly the same time Gale does.  
>He tried.<br>And no matter what happens, he knows trying was worth it.

**Allies  
><strong>It's crazy how much more he sees and hears, now that he can't talk anymore. People think he's stopped existing, they say things they'd _never_ want anyone else to know. He pays more attention too.  
>He has no idea what he's listening for. Forgiveness? Understanding?<br>They make him follow Katniss around the Capitol through the hours and _hours_ and _days_ until the Quell, pretend it's normal. He knows they're trying to unhinge her. He wonders if they have any idea how much they're unhinging him as well.  
>If he could talk he would apologize. He wonders if she hates him.<p>

**Lingering  
><strong>Can it really count as an interrogation? They know he can't answer questions.  
>Every time he falls asleep they wake him up. Every time he thinks he's dead they bring him back to life.<br>He bleeds a lot. He wonders if it's some sort of karmic retribution for not protecting Gale. In a hazy fog he sees Thread as one of his torturers and he has no idea if he's making it up.  
>Peeta's in the cell across from him. They hear each other suffering.<br>He had one job: protect people, and he couldn't even manage that. Not even close.

**Serenity  
><strong>He waits to die, and he realizes he is not afraid.  
>He curls up in his cell and tries not to hear the screaming. They give him a break sometimes, but there's always someone new to take his place.<br>He shivers, bleeds, wheezes, _hurts_. He's broken. They won't be able to bring him back forever. Next time, he'll be _really, _permanently dead.  
>But he knows: trying was still worth it. He resists them to his last breath, their casual cruelty, their poisonous hatred. He holds onto himself, wonders if they can see the defiance in his eyes. He hopes so.<p> 


	15. Octavia

Title: On Fire  
><span>Author:<span> karebear  
><span>Disclaimers (Hunger Games):<span> The Hunger Games trilogy was written by and belongs to the brilliant Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing the characters and world for a short while. I swear I'll put them back in (mostly) good working order, and I promise not to make any money off of this.  
><span>SummaryNotes: I'm writing these over on the "Non Star Wars Fan Fiction" section at boards. theforce. net for a specific challenge there called the Ultimate Drabble Challenge (#6), but I thought I'd post them here as well since I actually really like the way they're turning out. It'll go all over the trilogy in terms of order of events and characters, though I will do my best to keep things chronological within each individual week.

For the next few weeks (I actually entered the challenge several weeks late and so have been playing a slow game of catchup ever since - I have the words through Week 18) we'll be playing in the Capitol, which is _fun_ (and a little scary) for me, since I was born and raised in the DC 'burbs, the daughter of a federal employee, and then I spent years _working in television_. So if my life were to transfer into Panem, I know which "side" I'd end up on... and it wouldn't be District 12.

* * *

><p><em>Week 15 (Octavia)<em>

**Avarice  
><strong>At first, she sees nothing wrong with her job. To work on the Games in such a well-known capacity is a dream come true, even if it is for District 12. The prep team, is, of course, not as well-rewarded as a stylist. Cinna will get the credit while they do most of the work with the tribute. But there will be interviews, cutaway shots during the broadcasts. There is fame to be had, if they do their job well. Sometimes it's even better for the tribute to die tragically. They'll replay it in later years, at least.

**Envy  
><strong>It's almost too easy to transform Katniss Everdeen, to make her unforgettable.  
>Octavia is not beautiful. She's too plump, her eyes are the wrong shape, even with ink and glitter she can only hide her flaws. But there is something about Katniss that shines through even the dirt and scars of a life out in the roughest District in Panem. It takes Octavia a moment to realize it has nothing to do with her appearance. What Octavia envies is Katniss' attitude, her complete fearlessness. She doesn't care at all about what she looks like, or what people think of her.<p>

**Gluttony  
><strong>She can't bring herself to swallow the concoction, vomit, and continue stuffing her face.  
>Katniss has changed her more than either of them admits.<br>She remembers the hatred in the girl's eyes when she first came to the Capitol. She sees it again now, and she realizes she cares now about words she's heard all her life but never listened to: tessarae for one. Katniss has told her what those rations really are, barely enough to survive, and bought at a terrible price.  
>And "Hunger Games."<br>Octavia used to look forward to them, every year. Now, she can barely watch.

**Lust  
><strong>The 74th Hunger Games were Octavia's first, but Venia and Flavius have been doing this for a while. As the Victory Tour gets underway, they shiver and whisper in hushed tones when they know Katniss will not hear.  
>She wasn't beautiful when they started, but perhaps they have done their jobs a little too well.<br>They have made her desirable.  
>That was the <em>point<em>, and she knows it. Desirable kept Katniss alive in the arena, bought her sponsorship (and she knows exactly how expensive those medicines were, and she can't bring herself to feel bad).  
>But desirable is dangerous now.<p>

**Pride  
><strong>They didn't care enough to ask her _why_ she stole the bread (it wasn't for herself, she knew full well she didn't need it, but there are still kids here who are far too thin despite the carefully measured rations). She took the beatings with silent tears and figured it was only fair, payback for the _years_ she'd spent watching children die.  
>She never expected Katniss to rescue her, she doesn't <em>deserve<em> rescue.  
>But she can't help but smile as Katniss screams at Coin, because she knows that she had some small part in creating her, this girl on fire.<p> 


	16. Effie

Title: On Fire  
>Author: karebear<br>Disclaimers (Hunger Games): The Hunger Games trilogy was written by and belongs to the brilliant Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing the characters and world for a short while. I swear I'll put them back in (mostly) good working order, and I promise not to make any money off of this.  
>SummaryNotes: I'm writing these over on the "Non Star Wars Fan Fiction" section at boards. theforce. net for a specific challenge there called the Ultimate Drabble Challenge (#6), but I thought I'd post them here as well since I actually really like the way they're turning out. It'll go all over the trilogy in terms of order of events and characters, though I will do my best to keep things chronological within each individual week.

Not sure exactly why, but "sound words" made me think of Effie.

* * *

><p><em>Week 16 (Effie)<em>

**Pow**  
>She does her best every year, honestly, but there's not much to work with in District 12. It's not <em>her<em> fault.  
>It's not theirs either, though. <em>Every year<em> she comes here and feels their desperation. She forces herself to paste on the smile that's just as fake as her hair, because the cameras are watching all of them, especially her.  
>"Lots of spunk!" Haymitch manages to choke out, as the girl <em>volunteers to die.<em> "More than you!"  
>Effie freezes, because she knows he's right. He's the one that falls off the stage, but she staggers too, <em>almost<em> loses her composure.

**Bang**  
>She watches them carefully at the dinner table, finding little things to criticize, like table manners, because it's easier than getting attached. When the broadcast of the Reapings comes on she watches that instead, grateful for the distraction.<br>"Your mentor's got a lot to learn about presentation," she comments. You'd think he'd have picked up something, after 24 years.  
>But they only laugh at his drunken stupor and slurred words.<br>And she bangs her fist on the table and stalks away.  
>Just once she'd like a Games where watching "her" tributes die early and forgotten is not a foregone conclusion.<p>

**Boom**  
>It's just the two of them left in the arena, and Effie doesn't know what to think. This has never happened before.<br>She never thought she'd be in a position to choose, even in her own mind, which of her tributes she'd want to survive, which one would be left to die. Somehow, this is even _worse_ than watching them die early and forgotten.  
>The trumpets blare, but she thinks she hears the echoes of a cannon boom behind it. She has to be imagining that. Cannons only fire when someone dies, and these two are safe now. They've survived.<p>

**Zap**  
>If she concentrates on the schedule, she doesn't have to concentrate on the <em>reasons<em> for the delays and alterations, the increased security.  
>Working in television she's used to the constant zap of electronics: microphones, cameras, lights. But now, she sees the fear that Katniss thinks she's hiding and she notices other things: the humming buzzing sparks of electrified fences, caging them in. The tasers the Peacekeepers carry.<br>Katniss gives a speech in District 11, and it's really quite good, there's hope for her yet.  
>But then something happens, she hears a gunshot.<br>This is not how it's supposed to go.

**Pop**  
>"I just wanted to hold them accountable, if only for a moment," Peeta admits.<br>These two... they've popped through all the bubbles, the careful layers of expectation and illusion that hide the truth. They've been doing it from the start, so good and _honest_ that they can't even see the ripples they're creating, the danger they're in.  
>"That sort of thinking... it's forbidden. Absolutely." She tries to keep her voice controlled, but it's not the high pitched giggle they're all used to.<br>It's the closest she'll ever come to admitting she has those sorts of thoughts all the time too. 


	17. Caesar

Title: On Fire  
><span>Author:<span> karebear  
><span>Disclaimers (Hunger Games):<span> The Hunger Games trilogy was written by and belongs to the brilliant Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing the characters and world for a short while. I swear I'll put them back in (mostly) good working order, and I promise not to make any money off of this.  
><span>SummaryNotes: I'm writing these over on the "Non Star Wars Fan Fiction" section at boards. theforce. net for a specific challenge there called the Ultimate Drabble Challenge (#6), but I thought I'd post them here as well since I actually really like the way they're turning out. It'll go all over the trilogy in terms of order of events and characters, though I will do my best to keep things chronological within each individual week.

I flipped through Mockingjay looking for what happened to Caesar, but I couldn't find anything. So I decided the answer is "whatever I want it to be." Hunger Games Wiki lists him as "alive" at the end of the series, but is not specific as to any appearance after that one scary interview with Peeta. Fine by me.

* * *

><p><em>Week 17 (Caesar)<em>

**Inception**  
>He always asks the handsome boys about their girls back home.<br>In only a few minutes, he has to imprint these children on the millions of people watching, whose sponsorships and gifts might make the difference between life and death.  
>This one has a surprising sense of humor. Most of the time the kids from his District are either depressingly shy and silent or filled with a sullen anger that turns the audience against them.<br>In response to the question, the boy only gives a shy smile, shakes his head.  
>"Come on, what's her name?" Caesar prompts.<br>The audience waits.

**Babe**  
>A second year, an interview with the same kid.<br>He tries to joke, but they've lost the ability to gloss over the truth now. Peeta is too serious. So Caesar cuts right to the heart of the matter: the relationship revealed to the nation exactly a year ago, the relationship that changed all the rules.  
>The relationship that is going to end in fire and blood.<br>"Surely even a brief time is better than nothing?" he says quietly.  
>"Maybe I'd think that too, if it weren't for the baby."<br>For the first time in his _life_, Caesar Flickerman is speechless.

**Network**  
>He has never lost control of the audience in his studio.<br>These children should be easy to predict. He's been doing this for long enough, _nothing_ should surprise him anymore. But Peeta and Katniss never _stop_ surprising him.  
>As the live viewers cry, Katniss grabs for Peeta's hand, and then reaches for the other tributes.<br>And they reach back, one by one, until they form an unbroken chain, a network of defiance, broadcasting live.  
>The lights snap out, the camera cuts off.<br>And Caesar feels a flicker of fear, like ice down his spine.  
>It's all over for him now.<p>

**Avatar**  
>Another interview with Peeta.<br>It's such a cruel torture, forcing them to return to this set, these cameras and lights, pretend things are fine when in fact they're barely clinging to sanity.  
>They tell the truth now, they don't try to hide anything anymore. What is there left to lose?<br>At least with their dying breaths they can give warning, their avatars on the screen will say the goodbyes they will never be able to have face-to-face.  
>"Is there anything you'd like to tell her?"<br>Reach out to the world, get the message out.  
>Same job as always.<p>

**Traffic**  
>After a lifetime underneath the harsh heat of studio lights, he cannot adjust to the cold darkness of his cell.<br>He hears screaming sometimes, he wakes up from haunted nightmares, but the Capitol seems to be trying the "ignore to death" tactic with him.  
>Ironic, since he was once their face and voice, their symbol broadcasting to all of Panem.<br>He hears the chaotic traffic of an invasion force. It's all confusion, noises that sound like the arena sounded, fighting and gunfire swirling all around.  
>Later he learns that it's the Capitol that's died, not him after all.<br>Now what?


	18. Camera Crew

Title: On Fire  
><span>Author<span>: karebear  
><span>Disclaimers (Hunger Games)<span>: The Hunger Games trilogy was written by and belongs to the brilliant Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing the characters and world for a short while. I swear I'll put them back in (mostly) good working order, and I promise not to make any money off of this.  
><span>SummaryNotes: I'm writing these over on the "Non Star Wars Fan Fiction" section at boards. theforce. net for a specific challenge there called the Ultimate Drabble Challenge (#6), but I thought I'd post them here as well since I actually really like the way they're turning out. It'll go all over the trilogy in terms of order of events and characters, though I will do my best to keep things chronological within each individual week.

Got these words and I just had to channel my own life a little bit (plus I like the idea that more than one person can still be _one character_, the news _team_)

* * *

><p><em>Week 18 (Camera Crew - CressidaPollux/Castor/Messalla)_

**Direct**  
>Cressida loves her job. Directing is freedom, power, unlimited choice. It means watching the world through everybody's eyes. She sees what all of her cameras are looking at, and she creates a full picture by combining their incomplete perspectives.<br>When one camera loses focus, loses power, or simply struggles with the reality of broadcasting in a war zone, and can't be used because the person holding it is running to cover, leaving no image but shaky flashes of ground beneath them, then she can cut to something else, another eye.  
>The story never stops. It's <em>people<em> who have limited vision.

**Produce**  
>Pollux is a camera guy. He's the one who stands in the background. People do not notice <em>him<em>, they notice the equipment he carries, the tool in his hand. He doesn't get to decide where to go or what to focus on: that's what directors are for. He doesn't ask questions or hunt information: that's the reporter's job. He follows people around, and captures moments. He records _everything_, and shares it with the world. He tells the truth, the _real story_, and he gets back at the Capitol that thought they took away his ability to tell anything at all.

**Perform**  
>Castor picks up the camera and focuses on Katniss because if he watches Pollux his breath catches in his chest, he can't block out the familiar guilt. He had no idea his brother was still capable of whistling. He'd never had reason to find out, it's not something you would think to ask.<br>He realizes almost instantly that he recognizes the song. It's seared in the memory of everyone who's ever learned it; those people who have every reason to fight against the Capitol.  
>Pollux is not the only one crying.<br>_"I wasn't doing it for the cameras,"_ Katniss insists.

**Edit**  
>Messalla learned a long time ago that "assistant" is a word video crews love because it is eminently flexible. His job description is literally "whatever we need right now." Usually what they need is editing, which most people hate because it means long hours locked in a room with nothing but keyboard and screen and headphones and too many hours of footage and an always-too-soon deadline screaming in your ear. Most people hate it, but he loves it. It's the best game, finding something unique and powerful in the discarded images, looking at life in a new way.<p>

**Distribute**  
>This thing they do has become so much more than a job; it's a mission now, a calling.<br>It's not about following Katniss anymore, or searching for images to fill in a predetermined narrative. That's what the Capitol does; they use television to lie, they cut out every picture that doesn't match their story.  
>That's where they all started, that's the first thing they learned how to do.<br>That's where they end too.  
>They go into to the Capitol with no weapons but their cameras and headsets, and some of them die.<br>This thing they do will change the world.


	19. Greasy Sae

Title: On Fire  
><span>Author<span>: karebear  
><span>Disclaimers (Hunger Games)<span>: The Hunger Games trilogy was written by and belongs to the brilliant Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing the characters and world for a short while. I swear I'll put them back in (mostly) good working order, and I promise not to make any money off of this.  
><span>SummaryNotes: I'm writing these over on the "Non Star Wars Fan Fiction" section at boards. theforce. net for a specific challenge there called the Ultimate Drabble Challenge (#6), but I thought I'd post them here as well since I actually really like the way they're turning out. It'll go all over the trilogy in terms of order of events and characters, though I will do my best to keep things chronological within each individual week.

Greasy Sae is another character I decided I really like based on one line of dialogue (the one that shows up in "Winter")

* * *

><p><em>Week 19 (Greasy Sae)<em>

**Spring**  
>She smiles when she sees Gale and Katniss coming into the Hob, laughing and joking. They insist that they are just hunting partners, that nothing like <em>that<em> is going on between them and it never will. She rolls her eyes and chuckles and tells them that she needs them together to keep her supplies coming. One day soon they'll have to stop pretending. Maybe even today. Reaping Day. His last, maybe if luck is with him the knowledge that he'll be free from the Capitol's lottery, even if it means the mines, might let him look forward to the future.

**Summer**  
>She's not sure how Katniss became someone she took special interest in, but this year the Hunger Games are very different. She is glued to the screen, she cannot tear her eyes away, even when her granddaughter pulls at her shirt. She manages to find the girl some food while not fully paying attention. And she rallies all the desperate loners and losers of the Hob, an alliance of the people who long ago stopped caring, and somehow manages to convince them to contribute the money that none of them have to give Katniss a shot at surviving the summer.<p>

**Winter**  
>"I just can't wait for the whole thing to be over."<br>"I know," she tells Katniss. "But you've got to go through it to get to the end of it."  
>She doesn't point out that Haymitch has been waiting for the whole thing to be over for twenty-five years, and she's been waiting for even longer than that.<br>Outside, it's snowing.  
>Winter comes early here, as if they needed something <em>else<em> to make life harder.  
>She'll just have to do what she can to keep people fed. If she can give them a reason to smile, that's even better.<p>

**Season**  
>In District 13, they lack imagination.<br>They lack a lot of things. Sunlight. Seasons. Color and warmth and laughter.  
>She knows that most of her friends are happy to be here, to have food, shelter, safety. They are alive; that should be enough.<br>But she cannot help but wake every morning with an unsettled feeling in the pit of her stomach. Everything here is too clean, neatly ordered and boxed in. She's not the only one who feels that this place is deeply _wrong_. She combs her grandaughter's hair as the child whimpers and hums and squirms in her grasp.

**Change**  
>She'd only wanted her granddaughter to have a chance at a life as carefree as the one that existed in her head, because she knew she couldn't keep her protected forever. She wanted a world where her daughter wasn't dead, where her neighbors didn't have to choose between starving to death or bleeding under the Peacekeepers' torture.<br>She never thought she'd play a part, no matter how small, in the revolution that broke the Capitol.  
>She couldn't have imagined coming back to the wreckage of District 12 and feeding Katniss Everdeen eggs and toast like nothing at all has changed.<p> 


	20. The Girl and The Boy

Title: On Fire  
><span>Author<span>: karebear  
><span>Disclaimers (Hunger Games)<span>: The Hunger Games trilogy was written by and belongs to the brilliant Suzanne Collins. I'm just borrowing the characters and world for a short while. I swear I'll put them back in (mostly) good working order, and I promise not to make any money off of this.  
><span>SummaryNotes: I'm writing these over on the "Non Star Wars Fan Fiction" section at boards. theforce. net for a specific challenge there called the Ultimate Drabble Challenge (#6), but I thought I'd post them here as well since I actually really like the way they're turning out. It'll go all over the trilogy in terms of order of events and characters, though I will do my best to keep things chronological within each individual week.

Most weeks I let the words lead me to the character. Week 20... I was always pretty sure I knew who it was gonna be, no matter what words I was given.

Thank you, everybody, who read and reviewed and talked along with me through this experimental adventure. I can honestly say this challenge made me look deeper and rethink a _lot_ about this whole series, completely changed the way I see this world. And I loved every minute of it. I kind of wish it didn't have to end at Week 20.

* * *

><p><em>Week 20 (The Girl and The Boy)<em>

**Cut**  
>She holds the knife in her hands, studies it carefully. Her mother tried to take it away when Uncle Haymitch gave it to her. "What is <em>wrong<em> with you?" she'd screamed, wild and scary in that way she gets. "She's too young!"  
>The old man just shrugged. "She's eleven, Katniss."<br>Mother looked like she might cry, and she _almost_ gave up the knife, but didn't.  
>In the fields, she hacks at the plants and grasses she's learned about from her mother's books. She whittles and carves, gouging lines in the tree bark until they turn into pictures.<br>Her father smiles.

**Wrap**  
>Her hands move with gentle, practiced motion as her baby brother squirms and cries. She hums a tuneless melody as she cleans the blood away and wraps a bandage around his leg.<br>He thinks he's grown-up already, tries to chase after her and falls a lot. This time, he'd cut himself on a sharp stick trying to keep up with her in the woods. She knows there used to be a fence there, but now, even the youngest kids are familiar with these forest trails.  
>"She's got her skill," she hears Daddy say quietly.<br>And she hears Mother crying.

**Done**  
>Her brother toddles after her, immune to her scowls.<br>She watches him run through the grass, tripping and giggling and picking himself back up again, yanking up the yellow flowers so hard that patches of grass come up with them. When he has collected more than his small hands seem designed to carry, he hurries back to her with a huge grin lighting up his chubby cheeks. "All done!" he squeals proudly. He claps, cheering himself on, immediately dropping his prize.  
>"They're just dandelions," she says testily. "What are we supposed to do with them?"<br>"Mommy likes them," he insists.

**Over**  
>Her mother refuses to have a television in the house, no matter how much she begs. It's not like there's anything <em>dangerous<em> on TV.  
>"No!" Katniss snaps. "This conversation is over."<br>Then one day in school, they learn about the Hunger Games.  
>The chatter in the classroom stops, like everyone is holding their breath. The teacher speaks in quiet, halting tones. And her friends exchange knowing glances. This is why their parents disappear sometimes, lost in their own heads. Or they lash out with sudden anger. They constantly hover, worrying over tiny things.<br>This is what they never talk about.

**Finish**  
>She goes out into the woods and climbs a tree and whistles, waiting for the birds to whistle back. And she sings, only snatches and phrases, the little bit she remembers. She can't finish any song, and even the songs she knows, she gets the words wrong. Her mother used to sing when she was younger, she still sings for her brother sometimes. But as soon as she got old enough to ask, to try to learn them, Mother refused to teach her. And when the mockingjays pick up the words and phrases, Mother always wants to go back inside.<p> 


End file.
